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Lorain council debates whether abstentions count as votes amid disputed January minutes
Summary
Council members and the law director disagreed over how abstentions should be recorded after questions about the accuracy and handling of draft January minutes; the council agreed to review and correct the minutes and accepted a written legal opinion on the issue.
Members of the Lorain City Council spent the meeting’s opening discussion disputing whether abstentions should be treated as affirmative votes and whether the draft minutes from the Jan. 21 meeting accurately reflected actions taken.
The matter was raised after Council Member Ryazuki asked for “an explanation as to how we had 2 motions on the floor” and said she would appeal the procedural handling to outside authorities if necessary. Mayor Bradley and other members disputed her account and asked for clarification from the city’s legal adviser.
“I did issue an opinion regarding the matters,” the law director, Mr. Riley, told council, noting his written legal opinion was circulated just before the meeting and based on the draft minutes. “What the case law stands for and what I have concluded to be the case is that your a non vote is to be account is to be counted with those with the choice of those who did vote.”
Mayor Bradley urged the council president to determine how a nonvote should be counted in the specific appointment matter before the body. “I would consider that an affirmative note because I was so instructed and directed,” the mayor said, adding he would consider the appointment completed on that basis.
Council agreed to a motion to review and correct the draft minutes, and later the body voted to dispense with the reading of the minutes pending that review. A separate written legal opinion from Riley remained part of the record; Riley warned that his conclusions rely on the accuracy of the minutes as drafted.
The dispute prompted several members to urge caution about relying on draft minutes for legal conclusions and to direct counsel and staff to ensure the minutes are corrected and clarified where needed. Council member Macchio moved that the minutes be reviewed and corrected as appropriate and brought back on the agenda for formal adoption; that motion carried.
No formal change to any prior council roll call was made during the meeting itself; instead council agreed to revisit the minutes and to rely on the law director’s written opinion while acknowledging that further correction of the draft minutes could change the factual basis for the opinion.
